The results of the most recently completed Java.net poll suggest that awareness of the Adopt-a-JSR effort within the Java developer community continues to increase, albeit at a perhaps modest pace. Still, growing awareness is a strong positive for any long-term effort. And the Adopt-a-JSR program is certainly intended as...

The results of the most recently completed Java.net poll[2] suggest that awareness of the Adopt-a-JSR[3] effort within the Java developer community continues to increase, albeit at a perhaps modest pace. Still, growing awareness is a strong positive for any long-term effort. And the Adopt-a-JSR program is certainly intended as a long-term effort in promoting and guiding the future of Java.

A total of 185 votes were cast in the poll. The exact question and results were:

How familiar are you with the Adopt-a-JSR program?

15% (28 votes) - I participate in it

21% (38 votes) - I know what it is, but I don't participate

23% (42 votes) - I've heard of if, but don't know much about it

38% (71 votes) - Never heard of it

3% (6 votes) - Other

On the one hand, you could say "Aha! 'Never heard of it' received the most votes!" But, that's a bit misleading, since the first three options all represent gradations of familiarity with the Adopt-a-JSR effort. Summing up the voting for the first three options results in 59% of the voters expressing at least some familiarity with the Adopt-a-JSR effort (they've at least heard of it), whereas 38% of the voters said they'd never heard of Adopt-a-JSR.

But, then again, this poll drew a fairly small number of votes. If people aren't familiar with the topic of a poll, they're more likely to decide not to cast a vote at all. So, it would not be surprising if more than 38% of the Java developer community has never heard of the Adopt-a-JSR effort. In fact, if it was true 59% of the Java developer community actually has some awareness of Adopt-a-JSR (they've at least heard of it), that would undoubtedly be a cause for excitement among the core members of the Adopt-a-JSR effort!

Of course, the normal caveat applies: this is not a scientific poll... I doubt that 59% of the Java developer community has at least heard of Adopt-a-JSR. But, if anyone who hadn't previously heard of the Adopt-a-JSR program is reading this blog post, then that's one more developer helping us work toward that level of awareness...

The next -- and, of course, much more important -- step is to get involved[4] in the Adopt-a-JSR program!